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wholewheat flour

February 21, 2010 - 6:52am

enaid

wholewheat flour

I have come across a mill that sells 60% whole wheat flour. It has the course bran removed. Is this possibly the same as white whole wheat which is available in U.S.? I have never come across white whole wheat here in Canada. I'm not sure if it's called 60% because it has the course bran removed or if it is blended with white flour.

Oak Manor Farms in Ontario has a 60% WW flour available where they just sift out some of the coarser bran, yielding a flour that pretty much equates to a mix of 60% WW and 40% white. White WW flour isn't widely available in Canada because it is generally a strain of wheat that grows in more southern climates.

I am contemplating buying their 60% whole wheat as I usually use a mix of white bread flour and whole wheat. I have never been able to make a satisfactory 100% whole wheat loaf, despite using many of the recipes found on this site. Whatever I do, it is always too heavy and dense. I'm not a purist. We eat enough whole grains in other ways and we don't eat much bread anyway. This, at least, an organic flour and, as I can buy it locally, it is also a 'green' flour!

I would like to know if there is such a thing as unbleached bread flour. I have yet to find it here in Canada.

Not sure if this is the answer to your question, but I have purchased organic unbleached hard white (bread) flour from Oak Manor Farms. The only problem with it - and I am sure it is my inexperience, and not the flour - is that it doesn't seem to absorb much water, and using this flour in my tried-and-true recipes the dough is so wet, it just about slides off the bench!

That seems odd to me, as I have a 10kg bag of this same flour in my pantry now that i use on a regular basis and it works just like any other flour for me. Do you store your flour in a humid or damp area? Environmental moisture can infuse into the flour, causing it absorb less. However, I do find that it requires more mixing to get everything absorbed and development started, probably due to its very high protein percentage (13+). Try mixing a little longer, or do extra kneading or more stretch and folds and see how that affects it and let us know... Good luck!

Thanks for the advice. I'll give your suggestions a try.
In answer to your question, the flour is stored in a cupboard in our cool-ish kitchen, several feet away from the woodstove so I wouldn't think it was damp.
The flour (in the finished product) also has a slightly 'nutty' taste which, while not unpleasant, is noticeable. Maybe I got a bad batch?
Thanks again,
Janice

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